The Darkslayer: Chaos at the Castle (Book 6)

CHAOS AT THE CASTLE

The Darkslayer (Book
6)

CRAIG HALLORAN

THE DARKSLAYER:
Chaos at the Castle (Book 6)

By Craig Halloran

Copyright ©
September 2013 by Craig Halloran

Amazon
Edition

TWO-TEN BOOK PRESS

P.O. Box 4215, Charleston, WV 25364

ISBN eBook:      978-0-9896216-3-2

ISBN
Paperback: 978-0-9896216-4-9

THE DARKSLAYER is a registered trademark, #77670850

http://www.thedarksla
yer.net

Cover Illustration by David Chen

Edited by
Cherise Kelley

Map by Gillis Bjork

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recorded, photocopied, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Publisher's Note

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Chaos at the Castle

The Darkslayer (Book
6)

CHAPTER 1

Blink.

Eep look
ed like he’d been chewed up by a dragon and spit out. He lay quivering on the cave floor. His eye was red. Swollen. The wings on his back were mangled, and many of his teeth were broken. He let out a ragged hiss.

“Masstersss …”

“I hope you have the Keys, Imp,” Verbard said, his eyes glowering with silver fire.

Eep opened his palms. They were empty.

“Vicious!” Verbard snapped.

The
hulking figure emerged from the shadows, snatched Eep by the neck and squeezed.

Verbard kept his rage in check as Catten chuckled at his side.

“Brother,” Catten began, “we will get the Keys in due time, if need be, but let’s find out what happened first before you pull the imp apart, like old times.”

Verbard wanted nothing more than to destroy something or someone
, but Eep was his most trustworthy servant. Master Kierway wanted his head, but Master Sinway had saved it. Jottenhiem was a loyal soldier and comrade, but even he couldn’t be trusted. Now, his brother, Catten, had returned, and that only made him all the more uncomfortable. He should be relieved, but he was far from it.

“What happened, Eep
?” he said, looking right into the imp’s great eye.

Eep
’s eye bulged in the socket. He could not speak.

“Ease up!”

Eep gasped.

“Thank
you, Mastersss—”

Verbard snatched his snake-like tongue and said, “It’s Master.”

Eep glanced at Catten, then back at Verbard and nodded.

Verbard released his tongue.

“Pardons, Master Verbard. Ah … the skinny man I found under heavy guard. I had him, but a man, a large man, smote me with white magic. Cracked bones. Eep had no choice. Return or be banished.”

“Next time,” Verbard
said, “I’ll have to keep watch on things. Can you find this man again, if you have to?”

“Certainly, Masterss … er … Master.”

“You were supposed to bring the Keys or the man, Eep. You have failed,” Verbard said, letting a wave of energy course through him. Eep wasn’t of any use to him now. The creature was broken and would need time to heal. He couldn’t tolerate failure. Not from the imp or any other. He’d make an example of the imp, and he’d do it now.

Save your energy, Brother.
Catten had entered his mind
. Banish the imp. Bring him back later. The Keys can wait for now.

Verbard wanted to
smite his brother. Everybody. But, he let his magic ease.

It’s time we talked about the
Keys.

“Be
gone, Imp!” Verbard ordered.

“But Master, I hungers,” Eep hissed.

“Be gone!”

Blink.

Catten still sat on his throne, sipping port.

“Up, Brother.”

Catten rose, poured another goblet and handed it to Verbard. 

Verbard
took his seat. Eyeing his brother, he sipped. 

“Alright
, Brother. Now that we are alone, tell me everything. And don’t mince words. I want it all. Your resurrections. Master Sinway’s plans. This ludicrous notion that the underlings once lived in this city, and what is so important about these Keys.”

Catten’s gold eyes brightened
. His voice was almost cheerful. He said, “Certainly, Brother. Where would you have me start?”

Verbard patted the Orb of Imbibing that now rested within the folds of his robes. Its pre
sence gave him comfort. An edge he didn’t have before with his brother.

“And don’t be humble, Catten. It’s unlike you. It’s difficult to think that you are actually you, seeing how you have changed bodies. It will take some getting used to. Now tell me about your resurrection?”

Catten held his fist to his mouth and coughed.

“Unpleasant
. It was bad enough when the Darkslayer ran me through, but merging into another body was far worse than that. The pain was excruciating—”

“I don’t care how much it hurt! What happened?”

Catten stiffened, a darkness falling over him as he came closer and said, “I was getting to that, Brother.”

That’s more like it.

“Good. Continue.”

“Master Sinway was alone as he moved me from one body to another. It seemed not all underlings were fit for my powers. Some died and others remained blind in the process.”

“I don’t care,” Verbard said, taking another sip.  “What happened?”

“There is a tomb in his Castle filled with many well-preserved underlings. He merged me with one of them.”

It was one thing to raise a dead underling, but quite another t
o raise one without a body. The eyes of the underlings held many powers, and on occasion those eyes, if powerful enough, would be collected and turned over to the master underling. Verbard always suspected he hoarded the magic in them. That they gave him power.

“He merged you with the dead?”

“Yes. The corpse with the best likeness to me. My eyes and essence filled his body.” He fanned out his hands. “And now here I am.” He coughed. “I lay catatonic at first while Master Sinway let me recover. He told me about your mission and that you would need help. I, like you, Brother, felt him to be insane, but the part about the underlings living above in Bone might be true. He showed me glimpses of his past. He took me across the world. I saw where we underlings finally have men on the run. They are collapsing. Darkslayer or not.”

Verbard rubbed his finger under his chin
. “There are many humans, Brother. The city above alone holds many more than all of us.”

“But, they are not united. They squabble with one another. They fight over power and gold.
‘We have corrupted them before, and we can corrupt them again,’ Sinway says.”

Men could be bought, that much was certain,
but Verbard would rather kill them then work with them. After all, the greed of men had led to the fall of Outpost Thirty One and many others. But taking the entire city of Bone still seemed ridiculous.

“Am I to assume that we are to live among them
? Make them our slaves?”

“We will use fear against them. Tak
ing one Castle, this Castle Almen, will lead to the capture of others.”

“Does this have something to do with the
Keys?”

Catten smiled
. “’The Keys are only one means to an end,’ Master Sinway said. Having them could aid us in the battle, but they are no guarantee of victory. But, he insists that we acquire them, for they are powerful weapons in our enemy’s hands.”

“Or they are worthless baubles? Hah! Kierway has spent years trying to find them
, and now we are being told we don’t need them. Tell me more, Catten. Something is not well with Sinway. You know that. I know that. What did you find out?”

“We should not speak of such things, Brother,” Catten said
. He eyed the Vicious.

“What? Do you think the Vicious can send a
message? It can neither write nor talk. They follow orders. They kill. Now out with it, Catten. What did Sinway reveal to you?”

I feel your suspicions are correct
, Brother. He’s going crazy.

Verbard sank back into his chair. Catten was lying. Or was he? Verbard hoped that he wasn’t. If Master Sinway was falling to madness, that thought was comforting. It would lend a greater understanding to it all. Besides, destroying the humans and taking their city wasn’t a bad idea. Just a grand one. A grander one than he’d ever imagined before, hence opening the doorway to his doubts.

“Why do you say that, Brother? Is it because of this conquest, or was it something else?”

“Brother, I’m elated with the idea of overtaking the city, if not the entire world. I
’m tired of sitting beneath the world of men, and clearly Master Sinway is as well. There is something ancient that he knows, that he remembers, that has come to life and begun to burn. A vengeance hotter than the hottest of fires. An impatience that spreads like a forest fire on a gusty day. He’s bringing them out, Brother.”

A deep crease formed on
Verbard’s brow as he sat up and leaned forward.

“The legions.”

Verbard nodded.

“How many?”

“All of them.”

The Legions consisted of every armed force in the Underland
: soldiers, mages, clerics armed with metal and magic from head to toe. They had defended the Underland in centuries long gone, and now they were coming above ground. They would be a black plague on the land. They would destroy everything in their path.  If they won, they won everything. If they lost, they lost everything. The Underland would not be defended. It was an insane idea.

Catten shrugged.

Verbard smiled. He loved the idea.

“Well
, Brother, let the havoc begin.  Jottenhiem!”

CHAPTER 2

“Nay, Rayal! They cannot enter. Your father left the strictest of orders,” the sentry said. The tall figure stood, spear at his side, in the entrance of Castle Kling.

It was a
spectacular thing. Spires jutting into the moonlit sky, copper tiles twinkling like gold. It was the tallest building in all the City of Bone.